Smithsonian Announces Global Forest Carbon Research Initiative

Forests contain nearly 40 percent of the world's carbon—more than the atmosphere contains—but too little is known about forest carbon dynamics to predict whether anthropogenic global change will increase or decrease forest carbon pools. Helene Muller-Landau, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, announced a major global research effort to quantify forest carbon pools and fluxes. She announced the new effort at the Climate Change in the Americas Symposium, held Feb. 25-29 at the institute's headquarters in Panama.

Researchers from more than 70 institutions working in a network of 25 forest study sites currently monitor more than 3 million trees representing approximately 8,200 species—10 percent of the world's total tree fauna. This Global Forest Observatory, which is coordinated by the Center for Tropical Forest Science at STRI, was originally set up to understand biodiversity but has become an ideal tool for determining the on-the-ground effects of global change.

Working with partners at 12 of the CTFS sites, Muller-Landau will assess carbon storage and movement by quantifying the amount of carbon in trees, soils, lianas and woody debris; determining annual carbon flux at different sites; and seeking explanations for movement of carbon through forest ecosystems. Finally, scientists will scale up the study from individual sites to the larger landscape level by collaborating with regional forest ecologists and remote sensing researchers.

Global warming has been driven by the burning of fossil fuels since the start of the industrial revolution. Current levels of atmospheric carbon have not been reached in the last 400,000 years. While there is evidence from the CTFS forest plots indicating that some forests are currently absorbing some of this excess carbon from the atmosphere, other studies suggest that global temperature increases are actually slowing tree growth and, therefore, carbon absorption. Rainfall patterns and drought frequency are expected to shift as well—also with unknown impacts on forest carbon budgets.

If forests absorb more carbon from the atmosphere than they release, this will slow the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide and reduce associated climate change; in contrast, if forest releases exceed absorption, atmospheric and climate change will accelerate.

Initial work from the CTFS plots has already shown significant variation in the carbon stored in trees at sites across the network, as well as significant changes in carbon fluxes through time.

Funding from the HSBC Climate Partnership—in addition to supporting the carbon initiative— will support the first-ever landscape-level study in the tropics to understand the role of forests in biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services, as well as carbon storage.

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The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, headquartered in Panama City, Panama, is a unit of the Smithsonian Institution. The institute furthers the understanding of tropical nature and its importance to human welfare, trains students to conduct research in the tropics and promotes conservation by increasing public awareness of the beauty and importance of tropical ecosystems. www.stri.org

The Center for Tropical Forest Science of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute monitors some of the most astonishing forests on the planet. The world's largest tropical forest research program, CTFS comprises a global network of large-scale, long-term studies that together track the growth and survival of more than 3 million tropical trees. http://www.ctfs.si.edu/doc/index.php.

The Climate Change and Biodiversity in the Americas Symposium, held at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama Feb. 25-29, is sponsored by Environment Canada, the Canadian International Development Agency, the Convention on Biological Diversity, IUFRO, IAI, the Heinz Center, WMO, UNESCO, the Caribbean Climate Change Centre and the Smithsonian Institution. www.climatechangeandbiodiversity.ca

The HSBC Climate Partnership is a groundbreaking, five-year partnership of HSBC, The Climate Group, Earthwatch Institute, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the WWF. www.hsbccommittochange.com

SI-103-2008